Ding dong! Priest 1, Man City 0

They’re England’s best football team. But as they end their first week at an Austrian training camp, Manchester City is down 0-1 in the battle of the bells against a local priest whose early-morning church chimes are waking squad members earlier than wanted.

City, the English Premier League champion for the first time in 44 years, is spending hundreds of thousands of euros on the 12-day exercise in the Tyrolean village of Seefeld and it wants the players to train hard – and rest well.

To that end, it has reportedly flown in special mattresses from Rome at a cost of 1000 euros ($1211) each.

With a population of just over 3000 people and its stunning mountain vistas, Seefeld itself is a bastion of tranquillity, where there is little for the team do after training but relax.

Except for the bell. The players’ hotel – a former monastery – is attached to the medieval St Oswald’s Church, which rings its bell at 7am each morning. The consequences are predictable.

“Yes, they are loud,” said hotel owner Alois Seyrling over the telephone. He suggested the chimes added to the local charm.